WASHINGTON (February 26, 2026) – The Howard University softball team travels to Tucson, Ariz., for the Hillenbrand Invitational, hosted by the University of Arizona.
The Lady Bison open the tournament against Long Beach State Friday, Feb. 27, at noon (ET) and later that day face Minnesota at 4:30 p.m. (ET).
Howard meets Long Beach State again Saturday, Feb. 28, at 1 p.m. (ET) before taking on No. 15/16 Arizona at 6:30 p.m. (ET). Sunday, March 1, HU faces the Minnesota at 11 a.m. (ET) to close out the tournament.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Bison Nation can follow all the action via FloCollege. The matchup against Arizona will air on ESPN+.
WEEKEND PREVIEW
HOWARD
Last week, the Lady Bison (6-9) went winless (0-5) at the Purple & Gold Challenge in Baton Rouge, La., facing Louisiana, Michigan State and LSU at Tiger Park.
Taylor Ames-Alexander (Lancaster, S.C.),
Lauryn Jones (Denton, Texas) and
Maryn Jordan (San Diego) led the offense over the weekend.
Aiko Conaway (Haymarket, Va.) highlighted the pitching staff with a complete-game performance in a narrow 1-0 loss at nationally ranked LSU.
LONG BEACH STATE
Long Beach State (9-6) competed in the Mary Nutter Classic (Feb. 20-22), earning wins over Oklahoma (6-4) and Bethune-Cookman (6-3). The Beach fell to BYU (5-4), Oregon State (6-2) and Saint Mary's (Calif.) (13-10).
MINNESOTA
Minnesota (6-9) competed in the Gopher Indoor Classic (Feb. 20-22), earning wins over LIU (7-6) and Central Michigan (6-1). The Gophers fell to Iowa State (5-2), North Dakota State (5-4) and Central Michigan (5-3).
ARIZONA
Arizona (12-5) competed in the DeMarini Invitational (Feb. 19-22), earning wins over Boise State (11-2), No. 10 Stanford (4-1) and Santa Clara (11-1). The Wildcats dropped two contests to No. 3 Texas (12-2, 12-2).
LAST TIMEOUT
Howard had a challenging showing at the Purple & Gold Challenge, falling in all five contests. The Bison dropped two games to Louisiana (0-4, 3-6) and Michigan State (0-6, 0-5) and closed the weekend with a narrow 0-1 loss to No. 17/19 LSU.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Saturday (March 7), HU heads to Huntington, W.V. to compete in the Marshall March Madness Tournament, hosted by the Thundering Herd
For more information, visit the official Howard Athletics website at
www.hubison.com.
